Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Drop in University ICT Enrolments

According to the 2012 ACS Statistical Compendium, released today. This 80 page document provides an overview of the state of the digital economy, employment and education in the computer and telecommunications industry in Australia. The rrport found there were 543,992 ICT workers in Australia, contributing $100.62 Billion to the Digital Economy each year, with $4.5b exports. The report was produced by CIIER and Whitehorse, edited by Ian Dennis.

One area of concern identified by the report is the decline in university ICT enrolments:

The completions data results and future completions analysis are alarming. Not only have we seen a decrease in ICT completions since 2003 of nearly 30% overall, almost all of this decline has occurred in domestic students at over 52% decline, down from 9,000 graduates a year in 2003 to 4,300 in 2010.

For the last year I have been looking at how to have more flexible education for ICT professionals. At ANU I have been looking at how to combine industry certification with formal university programs. Over the next two months I will be preparing some more details proposals to blends some of the techniques ACS uses for education and certification, alongside traditional university programs. This would remove the current restriction where students have to enrol in one restricted certified course, in order to have their degree recognized by ACS. This might increase the pool of potential ICT professionals.

About Me

Canberra, ACT, Australia

Tom Worthington is an independent computer professional, educational design consultant and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University.
A Certified Professional member of the Australian Computer Society, in 2015 Tom received a national gold Digital Disruptors Award for "ICT Education" and in 2010 was Canberra ICT Educator of the Year. Tom previously worked on IT policy for the Australian Government and in 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy. He is a Past President, Honorary Life Member, Certified Professional and a Certified Computer Professional of the society as well as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a voting member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Tom has a Masters of Education (specializing in Distance Education) from Athabasca University, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from the Australian National University and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment from the Canberra Institute of Technology.